agnostically
agnostically adverb: in an agnostic manner; not having or expressing a firm opinion on something.
Adverb
agnostically (comparative more agnostically, superlative most agnostically)
- In an agnostic manner; not having or expressing a firm opinion on something.
- “Well,” said the poet tartly, “do people still think me too romantic? Are there, I wonder, any brigands left in the mountains?”
“There may be,” said Father Brown agnostically.1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Paradise of Thieves”, in The Wisdom of Father Brown,, London: Cassell, page 45 - […] he writes agnostically of the biographical information regarding Shakespeare.1922, Sidney Lee, chapter 6, in The Year’s Work in English Studies, volume 2, Oxford University Press, page 77
- Synonyms:
- doubtfully, tentatively, uncertainly
- “Well,” said the poet tartly, “do people still think me too romantic? Are there, I wonder, any brigands left in the mountains?”
- Toward, or from the perspective of, agnosticism.
- She is agnostically inclined, despite her strict religious upbringing.
- What you call “God” they refer to agnostically as “the universe.”
Examples of agnostically in a sentence
- Younger children, on the whole believed, and older children emphatically disbelieved (with third graders agnostically in between).1997, Máire Messenger Davies, chapter 5, in Fake, Fact and Fantasy: Children’s Interpretations of Television Reality, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence...
- […] we are asked, on philosophical and critical grounds, to treat these not as sure and most vital truths, but agnostically, that is to say, to let them alone and not attempt to settle them.1878, A. Macleod Symington, “Agnosticism and Dogmatism, from a Puritan Point of view”, in The British and Foreign Evangelical Review...
- […] the number of people who either dogmatically don’t believe in, or else agnostically or uncaringly, simply don’t bother about immortality is now considerable.1931, Aldous Huxley, “Squeak and Gibber”, in Music at Night and Other Essays, London: Chatto & Windus:
- ‘[…] all those who believe in God raise your hands. […]’ […] Taliesin is pleased to see his friend’s hand hover agnostically for a time and then commit.2002, Rhidian Brook, chapter 3, in The Testimony of Taliesin Jones, New York: Penguin, page 23:
Synonyms of agnostically
Forms of agnostically
| comparative | more agnostically |
|---|---|
| superlative | most agnostically |
Origin of agnostically
From agnostic + -ally.
Questions about agnostically
- What does agnostically mean?
- Agnostically means in an agnostic manner; not having or expressing a firm opinion on something.
- How do you use agnostically in a sentence?
- Younger children, on the whole believed, and older children emphatically disbelieved (with third graders agnostically in between).
- What part of speech is agnostically?
- Agnostically is an adverb.
Words near agnostically in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: agnostically (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “agnostically.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/agnostically. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.